Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to digital imaging systems and, more particularly, to acquiring images of an illuminated scene using digital imaging systems.
Description of the Related Art
Conventional digital image acquisition requires deploying an array of detectors at an image plane of an image acquisition device and exposing the array of detectors to light received from a scene. The detectors generate signals that are proportional to the intensity of the light falling on the detector. A complete image of the scene is produced using the intensities generated by the array of detectors. Each detector corresponds to a pixel of the acquired image. As used herein, the term “pixel” refers to a single scalar element of a multi-component representation of the image. Acquiring the information representative of the portion of the image represented by each pixel therefore requires performing a separate measurement of the intensity of the light falling on the detector corresponding to the pixel. Consequently, the number of measurements required to produce an image in a conventional digital acquisition system is equal to the number of pixels used to represent the image.